Karl Strauss, master brewer

Yes, Virginia: There is — or was — a Karl Strauss. While some suspected that the smiling brewmaster pictured on Karl Strauss six-packs was fictitious like Betty Crocker, Strauss was in fact a real person and master brewer. The German native, who lived in Milwaukee, died in 2006 at age 94.

Until this week, San Diego-based Karl Strauss' bottled beer had been brewed and packaged at an independent plant in Wisconsin. (K.C. Alfred / Union-Tribune)

At the brewery that advertised its flagship amber lager as a “San Diego Native,” this week witnessed the return of the native.

For nearly 20 years, kegs of Karl Strauss beer have been produced in San Diego. But every six-pack was brewed and bottled at an independent brewery 1,700 miles away in Stevens Point, Wis.

The San Diego company invested in brew pubs rather than a costly bottling line. “And Stevens Point, we thought, was doing a pretty good job for us,” said Karl Strauss brewmaster Paul Segura.

That era ended this week, though, when Karl Strauss launched its $2.4 million bottling line in Pacific Beach. In a homecoming that was two decades in the works, Woodie Gold rolled off the line Thursday; Red Trolley Ale followed yesterday.

“We really don't want to leave this location,” Segura said as bottles clinked and clattered through the automated filler and labeler behind him. “It's right in the heart of San Diego; it's right by the freeway. We love it here.”

At a time when other industries are outsourcing production, Karl Strauss discovered that it made business and brewing sense to bring all its operations under one roof. For starters, it wasn't cheap shipping bottles from the Midwest to Southern California, where Karl Strauss sells 100 percent of its beer.

“We spent about $3.50 in each case for just the freight alone,” said Marc M. Martin, the company's vice president of beer.

The split operation also frustrated Karl Strauss' team of brewers, which makes more than 30 beers a year, often exploring unusual and intriguing styles. But the six beers that were bottled in Wisconsin were among the most traditional – and, to craft-beer fans, least interesting – in the company's portfolio. No longer, staffers say.

Karl Strauss fans should notice an improvement in the bottled ales and lagers, independent observers say.

“This is an exciting change for them,” said Lee Chase, a beer consultant and former head brewer at Escondido's Stone Brewing. “Local beer is good partly because it is fresh. The local bottled beer should be fresher and more flavorful than one that is trucked across the country.”

The move comes at a critical time for Karl Strauss, San Diego's oldest microbrewery. Founded Feb. 2, 1989, by former college roommates Chris Cramer and Matt Ratner, Karl Strauss borrowed its recipes, genial spirit and name from one of Cramer's distant relatives, a former vice president of Pabst.

But the older brewery operated at a disadvantage to a rival such as Stone, which makes all its beer on site.

“We didn't have much flexibility,” Segura said. “We wanted to be able to do things – like bottle a holiday beer in 22-ounce bottles – ourselves.”

Installing the line was a two-year process that disrupted routines at the company's Rose Canyon headquarters, where 68 of its 440 employees work. (The others are scattered around six brew pubs in Universal City, Costa Mesa, Carlsbad and San Diego.) Karl Strauss also added enough brewing tanks to nearly double its capacity, to 60,000 barrels, and hired two more brewers and two staffers to supervise bottling operations.

With growth come growing pains. Yesterday, a handful of bottles skidded off the line, landing with a crash. Other bottles emerged from the automated filler only half-full. Still more were plucked off the line and whisked away by Shawn Steele, Karl Strauss' quality-control guru.

The scene was noisy, hectic, herky-jerky – and a thing of beauty. Just ask a brewer.